This document provides advice and reflections from a planner on creativity, planning, and culture. Some key points:
1) Divergent thinking from outside perspectives fuels exceptional creativity, but planners can lose this through institutionalization. Taking time for exploration and space for ideas to incubate is important.
2) Living a "dot life" of varied experiences, rather than a linear career path, allows for more creativity. Planners should question if they are bringing divergent perspectives to problems.
3) When setting processes and tones for projects, planners should respect the space others need for creation and focus on building ideas through positive, iterative discussions rather than "winning" sessions.
A Planner's Playbook - Everything I learned about planning at Miami Ad School...Sytse Kooistra
After being in advertising for 4 years, I needed some new guidance and inspiration as a strategist. And that is exactly what I found: I spent the summer of 2013 with 17 other (soon to be) planners from all over the world attending the Account Planning Bootcamp at Miami Ad School New York.
Thanks to the 38 industry heroes and instructors that shared their knowledge and coached us in those 3 months, I learned more than I ever could imagine about planning.
'A Planner's Playbook' is my attempt to summarize all that wisdom in 30 short nuggets (or plays, to stick with the metaphor of a playbook) and share it with you. I left out all the difficult frameworks and models and kept in simple by just stating, in my opinion (and in that of my instructors), what a planner should be and do.
Enjoy reading.
How to Create a Killer Creative Brief with Wild AlchemyUnited Adworkers
United Adworkers had the honor of hosting Lynette Xanders with Wild Alchemy to share her incredible knowledge and insights on "How to Create a Killer Creative Brief". For more information about Wild Alchemy and Lynette Xanders, visit WildAlchemy.com.
Top 10 Planning Departments in Advertising ShortlistJulian Cole
For more strategy resources sign up to Planning Dirty at https://www.planningdirty.com/newsletter
A common problem for planners moving markets is understanding the best agencies to work for. With a great list of international planners in the Planning Dirty newsletter group I thought I would ask the planners who they thought was the best agency to work for.
I compiled the first 10 agencies for the shortlist by analyzing the planning (IPA, Effies, Jay Chiats) and creative awards (Gunn Report) from the last three year looking at the agencies that consistently perform well.
I am making a shortlist of 20, so would love to get recommendations on agencies that you think should make the list.
Next week on the newsletter through an anonymous vote, I’ll put out the poll and report back the results. Sign up to the Planning Dirty newsletter to vote and get the best planning tools and resources fortnightly. bit.ly/PlanningDirty
A Planner's Playbook - Everything I learned about planning at Miami Ad School...Sytse Kooistra
After being in advertising for 4 years, I needed some new guidance and inspiration as a strategist. And that is exactly what I found: I spent the summer of 2013 with 17 other (soon to be) planners from all over the world attending the Account Planning Bootcamp at Miami Ad School New York.
Thanks to the 38 industry heroes and instructors that shared their knowledge and coached us in those 3 months, I learned more than I ever could imagine about planning.
'A Planner's Playbook' is my attempt to summarize all that wisdom in 30 short nuggets (or plays, to stick with the metaphor of a playbook) and share it with you. I left out all the difficult frameworks and models and kept in simple by just stating, in my opinion (and in that of my instructors), what a planner should be and do.
Enjoy reading.
How to Create a Killer Creative Brief with Wild AlchemyUnited Adworkers
United Adworkers had the honor of hosting Lynette Xanders with Wild Alchemy to share her incredible knowledge and insights on "How to Create a Killer Creative Brief". For more information about Wild Alchemy and Lynette Xanders, visit WildAlchemy.com.
Top 10 Planning Departments in Advertising ShortlistJulian Cole
For more strategy resources sign up to Planning Dirty at https://www.planningdirty.com/newsletter
A common problem for planners moving markets is understanding the best agencies to work for. With a great list of international planners in the Planning Dirty newsletter group I thought I would ask the planners who they thought was the best agency to work for.
I compiled the first 10 agencies for the shortlist by analyzing the planning (IPA, Effies, Jay Chiats) and creative awards (Gunn Report) from the last three year looking at the agencies that consistently perform well.
I am making a shortlist of 20, so would love to get recommendations on agencies that you think should make the list.
Next week on the newsletter through an anonymous vote, I’ll put out the poll and report back the results. Sign up to the Planning Dirty newsletter to vote and get the best planning tools and resources fortnightly. bit.ly/PlanningDirty
This is the presentation that I gave to the Young Planners at Cannes 2014. The data herein is taken from survey distributed through @cheiluk, @yellif and @cr
60 Minute Brand Strategist: Extended and updated hard cover NOW available.Idris Mootee
This book includes the very latest thinking on branding and brand strategy. It has been published in different many languages and use by top global brands to train their brand managers. New updated hard cover version is not available from Amazon May 2013
Pls view in full screen mode. Published in more than 5 languages.
Rick James Model for selling innovative ideasJulian Cole
This is a model that should be helpful in selling in innovative/non-traditional ideas that are usually quite hard to sell to clients/bosses.
@juliancole
The planning, creative and broader marketing community uses insights or an insight to get to ideas that will solve their marketing or business problems. This is a brief exploration into the definition of the insight.
Idealism and commercialism are not polar opposites. In fact, as counterintuitive as it may seem, sustainable profits are supported by sustainable idealism. Brand owners should not have to choose between idealism and profit, and profits based on a degree of idealism are more likely to be strong and sustainable over time. Businesses have come to recognize this and want their objectives, and those of their brands, to be attractive and easily defensible. While the economic crisis has tested some companies’ resolve, the fundamental factors that encourage them to espouse inspiring missions and defensible practices are unlikely to wane. Ogilvy has developed The big ideaL process to convey the ethos of the brand or company to people from different cultures and to employees and consumers alike.
50 planners to watch in 2014 - The Planning SalonJulian Cole
Twitter list of the 50 Planners - https://twitter.com/emma_hines/top-50-planners/members
thanks @emma_hines and @E_for_M
50 planners to watch in 2014 was picked by The Planning Salon.The list is a mix of the top planning talent from across the globe as well as the next generation of planners. The list has diverse mix of planners from big markets like London and New York to emerging markets like Athens and Cape Town.
The Planning Salon is a platform for all planners around the world to meet and learn from our industry's greatest minds. It was started in 2013 to showcase some of the biggest stars of the industry, guests such as Gareth Kay, Rob Campbell and Heather LeFevre. Check out the interviews here; http://theplanningsalon.com/
Strategic Planning & the Importance of Consumer insightsKaren Saba
A high level presentation shedding light on what Strategic Planners really do at creative agencies and the importance of consumer insights in the world of planning. It is an interactive presentation with a 'Guess the insight' section at the end.
Please feel free to download, improve, and share the credits.
This is the presentation that I gave to the Young Planners at Cannes 2014. The data herein is taken from survey distributed through @cheiluk, @yellif and @cr
60 Minute Brand Strategist: Extended and updated hard cover NOW available.Idris Mootee
This book includes the very latest thinking on branding and brand strategy. It has been published in different many languages and use by top global brands to train their brand managers. New updated hard cover version is not available from Amazon May 2013
Pls view in full screen mode. Published in more than 5 languages.
Rick James Model for selling innovative ideasJulian Cole
This is a model that should be helpful in selling in innovative/non-traditional ideas that are usually quite hard to sell to clients/bosses.
@juliancole
The planning, creative and broader marketing community uses insights or an insight to get to ideas that will solve their marketing or business problems. This is a brief exploration into the definition of the insight.
Idealism and commercialism are not polar opposites. In fact, as counterintuitive as it may seem, sustainable profits are supported by sustainable idealism. Brand owners should not have to choose between idealism and profit, and profits based on a degree of idealism are more likely to be strong and sustainable over time. Businesses have come to recognize this and want their objectives, and those of their brands, to be attractive and easily defensible. While the economic crisis has tested some companies’ resolve, the fundamental factors that encourage them to espouse inspiring missions and defensible practices are unlikely to wane. Ogilvy has developed The big ideaL process to convey the ethos of the brand or company to people from different cultures and to employees and consumers alike.
50 planners to watch in 2014 - The Planning SalonJulian Cole
Twitter list of the 50 Planners - https://twitter.com/emma_hines/top-50-planners/members
thanks @emma_hines and @E_for_M
50 planners to watch in 2014 was picked by The Planning Salon.The list is a mix of the top planning talent from across the globe as well as the next generation of planners. The list has diverse mix of planners from big markets like London and New York to emerging markets like Athens and Cape Town.
The Planning Salon is a platform for all planners around the world to meet and learn from our industry's greatest minds. It was started in 2013 to showcase some of the biggest stars of the industry, guests such as Gareth Kay, Rob Campbell and Heather LeFevre. Check out the interviews here; http://theplanningsalon.com/
Strategic Planning & the Importance of Consumer insightsKaren Saba
A high level presentation shedding light on what Strategic Planners really do at creative agencies and the importance of consumer insights in the world of planning. It is an interactive presentation with a 'Guess the insight' section at the end.
Please feel free to download, improve, and share the credits.
This was a presentation that I gave back in April. Since then we have done more advanced Transmedia work and I hope to share that case study soon when we get the full results. Sorry it took so long to upload this.
Constellations for Change - Chapter 0 - Nakedlouise_a
The first chapter of Rodrigo & Louise's Constellations for Change.
Naked is about how we remembered our paths and the niggles and questions that have set us on our way.
Find out more about the project: www.constellationsforchange.tumblr.com
Creativity is a discipline we need more than. But the right conditions are needed for it to thrive. Taking a look at academia, science and recent writing about ideas- this presentation uncovers the 11 conditions required for creativity to flourish.
This is a transcription of the Business901 Podcast, An Inquiry into the Meaning of Making. Seung Chan Lim, nicknamed Slim discusses his journey and finally his project, Realizing Empathy. Through this project Slim hopes to share ideas, tools, and other ways to facilitate a meaningful, sustainable, and constructive conversations between and among diverse perspectives whether that’s between people or between people and materials or between people and machines by using “making” as the shared metaphor.
Creating a Healthy Digital Culture: How empathy can change our organizationsDomain7
We often think of empathy as an abstract, emotional concept, maybe even see it as a weakness in an organizational context. This presentations suggests that empathy might be our greatest secret weapon to changing our organizations to become higher-performing, more innovative, better places to work, serving happier customers.
From #NowWhat15, http://nowwhatconference.com/
Creating a Healthy Digital Culture by Kevan Gilbert (Now What? Conference 2015)Blend Interactive
Now that your new site is up, it’s the time to think for long-term. Next year, will you still be the only champion for change? Or will everyone from leadership to front-line workers embrace the power of digital? Was this web project just short-term relief work to solve itchy problems, or is it part of a pattern of thoughtful, iterative growth? Discover tools, approaches and facilitation tactics to help transform your organization into a culture of digital excellence.
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Brand strategy, when untethered from direct creative execution, has tremendous potential to set the agenda for companies, leading to greater retention, operational efficiency, and audience love. The trick is taking the brave step to think of the power of brand differently.
In January 2014 we launched Wolf & Wilhelmine, a brand shop driven by our purpose of Do Great Work, Live Great Lives.
We were first focused on building an environment for sustainable creativity - i.e. a workplace where we can do the work we love without killing ourselves.
As we’ve grown over the past two years, we’ve realized that diversity is crucial to sustainable creativity and therefore we actively foster it.
Here's how we do it...
To break the rules, you gotta know the rulesHeidi Hackemer
Marketing and brand strategy is a craft, one that needs to be learned. Once you acquire expertise as a strategist, you personally have tremendous freedom and professionally add to the validity, energy and innovation in the field. But you gotta learn, and here's a few tips to push your own path forward.
Armando Turco (Head of Account Management, BBH New York; @armandot) and I gave this talk at BBH New York's Griffin Farley Search for Beautiful Minds event.
Coming off the Island: principles for a more collaborative, fast approachHeidi Hackemer
I speak for Hyper Island Master Classes in New York. This is the presentation that I've developed (through several drafts) of how to take the theory of working together better for our evolved landscape and being more nimble/collaborative/smart into actual practice.
I recently taught at the VCU Continuing Education class. This talk is about how we have to get doing (and stop theorizing so much) to create solutions for today's landscape.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Let's dive deeper into the world of ODC! Ricardo Alves (OutSystems) will join us to tell all about the new Data Fabric. After that, Sezen de Bruijn (OutSystems) will get into the details on how to best design a sturdy architecture within ODC.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
2. Ramblings from
the Black Wolf
Creativity + Planning + Planning for Creative Campaigns
Heidi Hackemer / @uberblond
3. a little about my path grew up in the woods of
Wisconsin amongst a von Trapp-esque family of
musicians, Bach and pigeons, wanted to be an
astronaut, ran a lot, studied Advertising and English
Literature, came to NYC, waitressed for two years,
started at FCB as a copywriter, two years later I
flipped to planning, went to Fallon London, decided I
liked the sun, came back to NYC to BBH, loved it, quit
my job, bought a big black truck (the Black Wolf),
drove around the country for four or five months,
slept in the back of the truck most nights, met a
spiritual guru in the swamps of Louisiana, came back
to NYC and now I’m a freelancer. got it?
4. after the journey of the past year, the
good news for me is that...
I love planning
5. the obvious
I love culture
I love people
I love cracking a problem
I love working with creative, smart people
6. but the real reason
planning is a wide playground where, once we get our core
craft down, we get to define what we’re all about
professionally... and many definitions are valid
7. we’re a motley bunch
beyond the craft, great planners seem to have
something in common: they are brave enough embrace
who he or she really is. that leads to a pretty diverse and
insane community
I love that
8. planner me
gut instinct planner
very inspired by primal human truth and culture
love the big story of a brand + culture; love making it work
love the possibility of digital (it’s so human)
love the creative process
love winning
*this will be important-ish in about 15 slides
14. In the past I’ve talked about the Mother Effin’ Wolf Pack*...
teams of smart, amazing people bouncing in and
out of a collaborative environment, all working
together to slay the problem at hand
* yes I have a thing for wolves.
15. wolf packs work when each individual brings something
unique to the process and has an output that they’re solely
responsible for
creative wolf
account person wolf
production wolf
planning wolf and media wolf
and digital experience wolf
and legal wolf
... you get it.
16. let’s be incredibly simplistic
account peeps uniquely bring an understanding of
process as well as the client’s/biz POV...
creatives uniquely bring the capacity to turn a strategic
solution into magic...
and what do planners uniquely bring to the table?
21. why?
creation has been democratized
anyone can put an idea out there
there are more ideas fighting for attention than ever before
as ubiquitous computing rises, this is only going to be
more acute of an issue
now, more than ever, we as an industry have to be really,
really good at what we do: making ideas that people pay
attention to and are motivated by
23. I don’t believe we can be truly creative and win when we’re all
working off of similar, processed inputs
24. we have an industry problem
institutionalization
25. Black Wolf Epiphany #1
I was very close to
becoming, if not
already, a fraud
(wyoming)
26. remember this?
planner me
gut instinct planner
very inspired by primal human truth and culture
love the big story of a brand + culture; love making it work
love the possibility of digital (it’s so human)
love the creative process
love winning
27. feeds, back rooms and
Mintel reports had
become 90% of my
cultural understanding
(pretty arrogant)
28. personally, I was
losing my perspective,
my gut. for my teams,
I wasn’t authentically
bringing the oxygen
29. Terminal 5 & MoMA
were the primary
brain stretch venues
(they’re about five avenues away from one another btw)
32. advertising values a
linear path. I did it
I stayed in the advertising walls and steadily moved up
jr planner > planner > senior planner > planning director
36. not only was I not bringing the divergent
perspective, I had a hunch that I wasn’t living a
life where creativity could really happen
so how does that make me good at what I love,
ie planning?
38. the south dakota crisis
“It’s been two months on the road. what do I have to show
for it? I don’t know what I’m doing with my life... should I
be blogging more? writing more? tweeting more?
instagram’ing more? networking more? will I ever work
again? will I have to leave NYC? will I be homeless soon?
will I really have to live in the truck? maybe I could be work
in a meat processing plant. I can’t work in a meat
processing plant!! Maybe I should get just my shit together
and get back on that advertising path. or I will end up
toothless and living in my parent’s back yard in Florida... in
a truck.”
40. when I was in South
Dakota having this
moment, Steve Jobs died.
and I, like everyone else,
spent some time going
through his life
41. “The minute I dropped out (of college) I could stop taking the
required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in
on the ones that looked interesting...
Much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and
intuition turned out to be priceless later on...”
42. “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only
connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that
the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to
trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has
made all the difference in my life.”
Steve Jobs
48. “Daydreaming and boredom seem to be a source for
incubation and creative discovery in the brain and are part
of the creative incubation process.”
Jonathan Schooler
professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara
49. if I owned the world version
Bill Gates schedules regular
Think Weeks - times where he
goes off in seclusion, shuts down
and allows his mind to take in
varied creative inputs and wander
51. reality version
Josh Linker / Blogger for Fast Company
5% Creativity Challenge
schedule 5% of your time for thinking (2 hrs/week)
companies that have done this reported zero drop in
productivity, a “flood of new ideas into the organization”
and happier employees
53. “Being able to step back and view things as an outsider, or
from a slightly different angle, seems to promote creativity.
This is why travel frequently seems to free the imagination,
and why the young (who haven’t learned all sorts of rules)
are often more innovative than their elders.”
Jonah Lehrer, author: How Creativity Works
54. Johannes Gutenberg transformed his knowledge of wine
presses into an idea for a printing machine capable of mass-
producing words.
The Wright brothers used their knowledge of bicycle
manufacturing to invent the airplane. (Their first flying craft
was, in many respects, just a bicycle with wings.)
George de Mestral came up with Velcro after noticing burrs
clinging to the fur of his dog.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed the search algorithm
behind Google by applying the ranking method used for
academic articles to the sprawl of the World Wide Web; a
hyperlink was like a citation.
from “How Creativity Works”
55. Dalai Lama talks about our
thinking as paths. Go down
the same paths too much, and
they turn into ruts. Ruts
aren’t good. Awareness helps
people divert out of ruts and
mentally explore new spaces.
56. reality version
find your dots, the things you’re just curious about
explore and invest in them, even if it doesn’t make sense
take some time to think about your own ruts - do they
need to be broken?
57. net net
I don’t believe you can plan for breakthrough creative work
if you don’t ruthlessly value creativity in yourself
58. my net net
right now, I’m more valuable to agencies
if I keep myself out of the agencies
it gives me space
it gives me divergent inputs
I’m more creative, more focused
I’m more energized when I’m in
I’m better at my job
(that makes me happy)
59. after Droga, back on the road for a few months this summer
better, richer, fuller
exploring the American Dream in 2012
60. this is scary
it’s scary to walk out of an ad agency at 6:00 (I do believe
we call this the “half-day”)
it’s scary to stare at the ceiling or go for a walk
it’s scary to not take the next big, logical job
it’s scary to trust the work will come as a freelancer
it’s scary to take off for a few months
it’s scary to not be one of us
61. I’m not advocating for everyone to quit their jobs, become a
freelancer, buy a truck and travel around
I am advocating for more personal thoughtfulness:
what do you believe in?
why do you do this job?
are you creating the best conditions to make that happen?
your answer may involve being in an agency; that’s okay
62. if I were one of the
bigger badasses in
the industry, I would
more eloquently put
it like this:
we need to blow it up
and start again
1) identify what you love
doing. be ruthless
2) identify the
conditions under which
you love doing it
Then design an agency, Cindy Gallop
IfWeRanTheWorld
a job, a life around it make love not porn
69. these grumbles more often than not
come from a culture of hand-offs...
PRODUCTION(
ACCOUNT(
STRATEGY(
CREATIVE(
MEDIA(
70. ...rather than a team culture of synchronized flow
MEDIA(
STRATEGY(
CREATIVE(
ACCOUNT(
PRODUCTION(
CLIENTS(
71. shocking observation from my experience
if we let creatives
into our process,
creatives are more
likely to let us
into theirs
(done thoughtfully, this usually helps the work)
72. in the long list of deliverables that the process of making
work requires, planning has the first big one - the brief
77. if Dumbledore would have told Harry
everything that Harry ultimately
needed to know on Day One,
Harry’s head would have exploded
the constant conversation, however,
made for a deep relationship
78. the iterative brief
rooted in the immense complexity of the communication landscape today -
but it also, nicely, creates a lovely rhythm on a team
79. define the problem you’re make a wall of your
trying to solve. define thinking/hypotheses/
do the planner thing: dig
brand and marketing goals. interesting stuff. set out a
deep, read a lot, research
gather a slew of emotional nice cake. invite team
and behavioral insights. members to come round
make some hypotheses and chat
write a brief. lay out the if it’s modern, the solution
emotional story. have some will probably be complex.
(this brief shouldn’t
engagement planning nod to the complexity.
surprise anyone because of
thoughts. get some media promise more cake and
step three)
suggestions in there. make discussion once they’ve
a tumblr cracked an idea
wait. feed bits of thinking,
wait. inspiration, deliverables -
help. shoot for something helpful build the strategic fortress.
wait. to give them every day. sell it
wait. build, shape, make better.
idea cracked. yay. every day
80. net net
open your own process up
be respectful of the space that everyone needs
feed, think, talk, be present
81. word of caution: don’t collaborate to death
“The most spectacularly creative people in
many fields are often introverted, according
to studies by the psychologists Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re
extroverted enough to exchange and
advance ideas, but see themselves as
independent and individualistic.”
The Rise of the New Groupthink, NY Times
87. I believe we really need to be sensitive to this as planners
88. as @mrbsmith so beautifully articulated and @EMMACNYC got super excited
about so she and I talked about it a lot and thus I was influenced
positivity is one of the strongest planning tools
that you can build... especially when it comes to
working with creatives
89. be positive, be into it
(if you don’t feel it, fake it until you do)
96. the Positivity/Negativity (P/N) ratio
in a 2004 study, high performance teams had a P/N
ratio of 5.6, medium performance teams a P/N of 1.9
and low performance teams a P/N of 0.36 (there was
more negativity than positivity)
97. net net
grow up
make it about the work, not about you
be someone that other people want in the room